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Creating a custom layout
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I figure I'll just use this thread to ask my question since it's related. I just got a page with Host Monster and they recommended this shopping cart. I pretty much have figured out the cart now, so I'm on to trying to figure out how to get the layout to work.

I understand the header and footer files. I can see how to edit them as well. My problem is that the page I'm using has all of it's layout in the body of the page. The only part in the header is the background. My side panel is part of the body.

Is there anyway I can get some help figuring this out? I'll probably upgrade to pro, but first I gotta see if I can get everything working. If not I'll have to just lay CGI script all over the site, but I really would rather not do that.

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Before you get too far into the store, you might want to make sure that you have the latest version installed on your server. The latest version is v5. You can get the files by following the "download" link on the upper left of the navigation column.

This thread should help you out with your layout issue:
http://www.agoraguide.com/faq/viewtopic.php?t=1310

HTH!


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I've updated and now the cart will not calculate the items. Everytime an item is added to the cart, the previous item is deleted. Then when I hit check out, all items are deleted. Plus I lot my offline credit card blanks to be able to run cards offline. Is there's any links talking about this already by chance?

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To follow up what i just posted, there was some settings messed up when I upgraded that didn't take the first time I set them. That fixed the calculations. The credit card part is still missing though. I've only got a purchase order (which I don't need) and check option. I've got a credit card machine that I want to run orders offline and need a blank space for that that will encrypt the number.

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You need to go through the managers and set them up. Even if you don't change any settings, at least hit the submit button in them.
Take a look at this post, it will help.
http://www.agoraguide.com/faq/viewtopic.php?t=4501

BTW, how did you perform the upgrade, exactly???


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I downloaded the file where you had given the link then used SmartFTP to upload the file in ASCII. Once I did that I used the link it said to activate and it showed that a full upgrade was successful. It deleted the file that was in my shoppingcart folder, but there is a .zip file it had downloaded that I didn't know if I should delete.

I'll read over that link and see what I can come up with. Thanks for all the help!

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I figured it out. What I was doing wrong is where it asked about payment gateway, I saw it was set for offline so I left it as that. I didn't hit submit since I thought it was already preset for what I wanted. The page afterwards is what I needed to access after I hit submit. Now I have those settings correct.

Now the hardest part, trying to modify the store to look like I want!

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Use the thread I gave you to get your template set up.
Your customized store_header.html, secure_store_header.html, store_footer.html and secure_store_header.html files will need to be uploaded in ASCII mode to the 'html/html-templates/templates/Custom' directroy, when they are done. Then you select your new template in the Primary/Core Settings Manager.

HTH!


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I'm well on my way to customizing the page, but I can't get the button selection to allow me to direct the path of the button presets. I had it working and now it won't. The layout is staying in default mode. The "Select a Button Set:" is blank and I have hit all submit buttons in each of the catagories now. Is there a setting I'm missing to make it see the path? I left the button sets inside the image folder just as everything was installed.

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Ok, I figured out the buttons thing. I didn't know I needed the option turned on for self serving images. I thought if I had the page pointed in the right way that it would do it's own thing, but I got it now. I'm still having trouble figuring out what part of the page goes where so I can make it look like I want without breaking the script of the page.

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For the images and buttonsets, you only need to have the "Self Serve Images" set to yes IF you are running your store from INSIDE the cgi-bin. If it is NOT inside the cgi-bin, then set "Self Serve Images" to NO. Otherwise your server may have a fit ans set off their security, causing things to be shut down and you will begin to get "foprnidden" messages when accessing pages of the cart. This is due to the multiple consecutive hits by picserve.cgi to serve up the images. The server thinks it is under attack so security takes over.

In the Primary/Core Settings the URL to images should be set to:
Code:
html/images

There shouldn't be anything else in that field...

Self Serve Images : No (if running inside the cgi-bin set to "Yes")

Disk path to images
Code:
./html/images


The buttonsets directory must be in the same directory as the rest of the product images.

HTH!


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Thanks. I guess when I updated it changed the ./html/images by taking away the period. I've made the changes and it's working fine.

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I'm having problems with certain functions. When I click verify, my cart errors and I get a blank page. The same thing happens with Clear Order Form and Complete Order buttons. Here's what I have so far:

http://www.muchtobuy.com/shoppingcart/agora.cgi

Also when I add items to the cart, it's giving me a total that's not correct. I turned tax off, or so I thought.

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There are settings in the "Store Settings - Misc" manager that need to be set to "Yes" to show the appropriate labels so that the customer can see what is making up their grand total. The setings are where you set up the labels for the order totals.

As for the checkout errors, you need to finish setting up the Payment Gateway's settings with the appropriate URLs. If you will be collecting credit card info on your site, you need to be using SSL..

HTH!


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SSL is one of the pay shopping cart services right? I have a credit card machine that I use for my t-shirt business. I figured to collect the information and manually enter it into my machine. For as low volume selling as I figure I will be doing, paying $20o up front for a processing company plus $9 or more a month, along with the website fees would break me. I have a paypal account too, but I saw that I can't offer that unless I did go with a pay service. That's just way out of my ballpark. I figure I'll sell at best 3 - 4 items in a week, but more like 2 - 3 every 2 weeks.

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SSL is what is used to encrypt the order form so prying eyes can't see what the customer puts in there. It is a security protocol. You might want to ask your web host if shared SSL is available with your hosting package. If it s, ask them what the URL is to use it.

BTW, the PayPal gateway is available with the latest free version of AgoraCart... v5.x

HTH!


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I'll work on that and see what I can do. Thanks! It shouldn't be a problem getting that info.

One other thing that I haven't seen talked about. I'd like to offer larger images of items. I'd like to at least have it so that people could click the picture on the product page to enlarge it. Is there anyway to do that and still have the ability to input the products the regular way, or will I end up having to manually adjust the HTML code by hand?

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The following thread will help you with the larger/popup images:
http://www.agoraguide.com/faq/viewtopic.php?p=21513#21513

HTH!


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I got the popup working now. Thanks a lot for the help on that. It's working perfectly fine. Now a couple of new issues.

The first one is how the "View Cart" looks. Is there an easy way to space the columns of is it going to require coding some spaces directly?

With PayPal. I see where you can use it as a Gateway, but how can I allow PayPal as an option in addition to the Credit Card, Check, Money Order, etc. options? I'm not seeing where you can do that and either I'm not keying in on the right words in searching to forum or something.

The last one, I've seen discussions on subcatagories, but I can't find anything like I want to do. I want to do something like this:

TOYS
▪ Figures
▪ Cars
▪ Playsets

T-SHIRTS
▪ type 1
▪ type 2

And on and on. I want the main catagory to not be linked. I only want the sections linked. Pretty much just add catagories between various break points on the list that's already there for product. Plus I'd like to add a bullet point in front of the selections. Am I looking at some hard coding or is there an easy way to do it that I'm overlooking. Or do I need to upgrade to pro now to do it?

Again thanks for all the help. I've come a long way with your help and couldn't have done it without you.


Another thing I wanted to mention. Host Monster charges for SSL. Is this a standard thing? I'm new to actually opening a webstore so I have no clue. The charge is $45 a year with a required static IP for another $30 a year. This is the info about their SSL service:

http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=368

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J_man,
You've got lots of different topics going on here... I will answer them, but in the future, you need to to separate your questions into the appropriate topics for each question. All of your PayPal questions neded to go in the PayPal Payment Gateway topic area, questions on the "View Cart" is a Cart Display topic issue, the subcategories question is in the right place, though... This forum is not your personal help desk or mentoring, the thinking is that this is a resource that is used by many people who come after you and by putting questions in their appropriate area, it helps those who come in later. So it is important that you as only topic specific questions in the appropriate topic areas of this forum. When we help ourselves in this forum, we end up helping others, too...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
View Cart Display
J_Man wrote:

The first one is how the "View Cart" looks. Is there an easy way to space the columns of is it going to require coding some spaces directly?


Not quite sure what you are asking, but everything having to do with the look of those tables is handled by the CSS, which is edited in the CSS Editor in the manager.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PayPal Payment Gateway
J_Man wrote:

With PayPal. I see where you can use it as a Gateway, but how can I allow PayPal as an option in addition to the Credit Card, Check, Money Order, etc. options? I'm not seeing where you can do that and either I'm not keying in on the right words in searching to forum or something.


If you have a PayPal business account, those options are already available. You first, have to have your profile set up at PayPal to allow those without a PayPal account to pay you. Then, just set up the PayPal Gateway in the store manager. When the customer is sent to PayPal from your site those options will be available to them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Store Layout Manager - Subcategories
J_Man wrote:

The last one, I've seen discussions on subcatagories, but I can't find anything like I want to do. I want to do something like this:

TOYS
▪ Figures
▪ Cars
▪ Playsets

T-SHIRTS
▪ type 1
▪ type 2

And on and on. I want the main catagory to not be linked. I only want the sections linked. Pretty much just add catagories between various break points on the list that's already there for product. Plus I'd like to add a bullet point in front of the selections. Am I looking at some hard coding or is there an easy way to do it that I'm overlooking. Or do I need to upgrade to pro now to do it?


Yeah, you overlooked it... THe settings for subcategories is right in the Primary/Core Settings of the manager. 2nd section on the page, "Database Section". There are 3 questions that deal with subcategories. There is even some instruction as to how to set them up. Since you don't want the main category linked, there is a little editing to be done in the category display code that is in the store header files:
Find:
Code:
print qq~\n&bull;<a href="agora.cgi?cart_id=%%cart_id%%&amp;product=$category2" class="ac_left_links" title="$category"><b>$category</b></a> $catnumber<br>~;

Change to:
Code:
print qq~\n<b>$category</b> $catnumber<br>~;

There are 2 instances of this line, but you will only want to edit the 1st one. THe second one is only used if there aren't any subcategories in that category. In those instances, you do want to have a link on the category name.
As for the bulleting of the subcategories, find:
Code:
     print qq~\n&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="agora.cgi?cart_id=%%cart_id%%&amp;product=$category2&amp;$sc_subcat_index_field=$category3" title="$category3" class="ac_left_sub_links">- $category3</a> $catnumber2<br>~;

Edit to:
Code:

     print qq~\n&nbsp;&nbsp;&bull;<a href="agora.cgi?cart_id=%%cart_id%%&amp;product=$category2&amp;$sc_subcat_index_field=$category3" title="$category3" class="ac_left_sub_links">- $category3</a> $catnumber2<br>~;

BTW, wherever you see "male cows with horns are not very nice when they get angry" the word censors have edited out b_u_l_l , I added the underscores so you could see the word, but when you edit the code use that word without the underscores.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SSL Question
J_Man wrote:

Another thing I wanted to mention. Host Monster charges for SSL. Is this a standard thing? I'm new to actually opening a webstore so I have no clue. The charge is $45 a year with a required static IP for another $30 a year. This is the info about their SSL service:

http://helpdesk.hostmonster.com/kb/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&id=368


If I recall correctly hostmonster has shared SSL available with their hosting accounts. You might want to ask about that. Shared SSL is adequate for use with the store.
What they are talking about is branded SSL which uses your domain name. That is typical to charge for a static IP and $30 is one of the prevailing rates with web hosts. Now, you can get an SSL cert for $27/yr but it wouldn't be through hostmonster... but it shouldn't matter... It's not a GoDaddy SSL cert either (don't trust those...)


HTH!


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Thanks again for the reply. I'm just now able to start getting back to this. I ended up getting something like the flu or something and couldn't focus for a week. Sorry about putting multiple topics in one question on one topic. I'll make sure to split any of that up for future question. What I'm stuck on right now is that I think my header file is messed up. Here's what mine looks like right now:

Code:
<!--BEGIN HEADER TABLE-->
<table WIDTH=765 HEIGHT=28 BGCOLOR="#257B29" BORDER=0 CELLPADDING=0 CELLSPACING=0>
<tr>
<td HEIGHT=40 ALIGN=LEFT>
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="+3" color="#ffffff"><b>Much to Buy</b><br></font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="+1" color="yellow"><i>Thanks for visiting our store!</i></font>
</td><td HEIGHT=40 ALIGN=right><font face="Verdana, Arial" color="#ffffff" size=2>
<form METHOD="POST" ACTION="agora.cgi">
<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="cart_id" VALUE="%%cart_id%%">
<input TYPE="text" NAME="keywords" SIZE=20 MAXLENGTH=40>
<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="ppinc" VALUE="search">
<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="exact_match" VALUE="on">
<input TYPE="submit" NAME="search_request_button" VALUE=" Search "></form></font>
</td></tr></TABLE>
<TABLE WIDTH=765 BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 align=top>
<TR><TD WIDTH=145 valign=top background="agora.cgi?secpicserve=steelgrey.jpg" bgcolor="#cccccc" height=100%><img src="agora.cgi?secpicserve=blank.gif" width="145" height="1" border="0"><br><br>
<b><font face="arial,verdana" color="red" size=2><CENTER>Shopping Categories:</CENTER></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica" color="#FF0000" size=1>
<!--agorascript-pre {
local(%db_ele,$sku,$category,%category_list);
if (!($sc_db_lib_was_loaded =~ /yes/i))
 { &require_supporting_libraries (__FILE__, __LINE__, "$sc_db_lib_path"); }
&capture_STDOUT;
&get_prod_db_element($db{"product"},*db_ele);
foreach $sku (keys %db_ele) {
  $category = $db_ele{$sku};
  $category_list{$category}++;
}
foreach $category (sort(keys %category_list)) {
$category2 = $category;
$category2 =~ s/_/ /ig;
  print "&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=\"agora.cgi?cart_id=%%cart_id%%&product=",
    "$category\">$category2</a><br>\n";
}
&uncapture_STDOUT; }
--></font></b>

<BR><HR><BR><br>

<CENTER><font face="arial,verdana" color="red" size=2><B>Look For Items under this Price:</B></font>
<form METHOD="POST" ACTION="agora.cgi"><input
TYPE="hidden" NAME="cart_id" VALUE="%%cart_id%%">$
<input TYPE="text" NAME="query_price_high_range" SIZE=7 MAXLENGTH=10><BR>
<input TYPE="hidden" NAME="ppinc" VALUE="search">
<input TYPE="submit" NAME="search_request_button" VALUE=" Search "></form></CENTER><br><br><hr><br><br>

<font face="arial,verdana" color="red" size=2><CENTER><b>Site Sections:</b></CENTER></font>
<!--agorascript-pre
 &capture_STDOUT;
 &cartlinks;
  print "<font face=Arial size=2>";
$cartlinks =~ s/<br>/<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;/ig;
$cartlinks =~ s/style="text-decoration: none"//ig;
print "&nbsp;&nbsp;";
print $cartlinks;
  print "</font>";
&uncapture_STDOUT;  -->

<br>
<br>
</TD><TD WIDTH="620" valign=top>
<!--agorascript-pre {
local (@my_cart_fields,$my_cart_row_number,$result);
local ($count,$price,$product_id,$quantity,$total_cost,$total_qty)=0;
if ((!(-f "$sc_cart_path"))||($sc_processing_order =~ /yes/i)) {return ""}
open (CART, "$sc_cart_path") || &file_open_error("$sc_cart_path",
 "display_cart_contents_in_header", __FILE__, __LINE__);
 while (<CART>)
  {
   $count++;
   chop;   
   @my_cart_fields = split (/\|/, $_);
   $my_cart_row_number = pop(@my_cart_fields);
   push (@my_cart_fields, $my_cart_row_number);
   $quantity = $my_cart_fields[0];
   $product_id = $my_cart_fields[1];
   $price = $my_cart_fields[$sc_cart_index_of_price_after_options];
   $total_cost = $total_cost + $quantity * $price;
   $total_qty = $total_qty + $quantity;
  }
close (CART);
if ($count > 0) {
  $result = '<div align="center">' .
      '<center><table border=0 width=100% cellspacing=0 bgcolor="#cccccc" background="agora.cgi?secpicserve=steelgrey.jpg"><tr>' .
      '<td width="25%" align=left>&nbsp;&nbsp;' .
      '<a href="agora.cgi?dc=1&%%href_fields%%' .
      '"><font color="#0000ff" face="arial,verdana" size=2>View Cart</font></a></td>' .
     '<td width="50%" align=center><font color="#000000" face="arial,verdana" size=2>' .
     "Items in shopping cart: $total_qty &nbsp;\n&nbsp; " .
      "<br>Item cost subtotal:&nbsp; " . &display_price($total_cost) .
      "</font></td>\n" .
      '<td width="25%" align=right>' .
      '<a href="%%StepOneURL%%?order_form_button.x=1&%%href_fields%%' .
      '"><font color="#0000ff" face="arial,verdana" size=2>Check Out</font></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</font></td>' .
      "</tr></table></center></div>";
 } else {
  $result = "";
 }
 return $result;
}-->

<!--END HEADER TABLE-->


I can't find the section you had mentioned. I do see a section that's probably where you are talking about, but it's not exactly the same so I didn't know what to do. It's probably why my subcatagories are still NOT working. I did all of the changes (and had most already set corectly) but it's still not showing the catagory with a subcatagory. It does know that I have setup the subcatagory though since in edit it lists my catagory and subcatagory as it's suppose to. There's just no way to make it display it. Can any of these be edited in a WYSIWYG html editor? I'm thinking no since those programs usually are sloppy with coding, but I thought I'd ask. I generally don't like them but will use them when I get in a bind.

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The code you have posted is OLD code... You need to update things to current version coding...
Get a copy of the default header/footer files and take a look at the code for the cartlinks and categories and other features.

BTW, you can get a fresh copy of the cart files for your local computer by going to the downlod link on the upper left and downloading the .tgz file for the version you have. Then, after you have downloaded it, unzip it to your local computer.

HTH!


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That's I guess part of the problem of upadating to version 5 instead of clean installing. Ok, thanks, I'll get all of that fixed and should be able to figure things out from there. That's probably been a lot of my issues.

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A problem I'm seeing. If you go to "Store Headers and Footers" and submit changes, you end up getting the old script and it over rides the new script. If I edit the code directly in "Store Templetes - Header/Footer" it sets the catagories the way you had said, but the whole page was all out of line lost the top bar, background, and everything else. So people might need to leave the "Store Headers and Footers" button alone when they go into the store manager. That is unless my script is off due to some old files.

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The "Store Headers and Footers" is a remnant of the OLD version.
You need to go into the 'protected' directory and remove the 'basic_store_header_footer_editor-ext_lib.pl' file.

HTH!


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